Friday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles are back in action

Friday night baseball seems weird with winter's return to the east coast, but the Orioles will take on the Red Sox in Grapefruit League ball at 6:05 tonight. Team USA also opens WBC play against Colombia tonight. Dig that.

Showalter on Bleier, plus other notes - School of Roch
Roch talks about life in the pen in a post-Teej world.

Joey Rickard having another good spring as he tries to cement spot on Orioles roster - Carroll County Times Yes. We're really doing this again.

2017 Preview: Baltimore Orioles | HardballTalk
"Manny Machado is a stud and the Orioles will hit a ton of dingers. But is that enough to return them to the playoffs?"

MLB: Are Baltimore Orioles Fan Too Optimistic for 2017?
A sports research company named Orioles fans among MLB's most optimistic. Obviously, they've never ventured into a CC gamethread.

2017 Projected Opening Day Payrolls | FanGraphs Baseball
Laminate this and carry it around for your bar squabbles with the Cheap Petey crowd.

It's the birthday of Mike Timlin. He was great with the Blue Jays, lousy with the O's and had a late career resurgence with the Red Sox. Of course. Tike Redman, who had a brief, decent spell with the Dark Age Birds, turns 40 today.